Origin of the Peavey 5150/6505 - VTM or SLO?

[Ben Waylin]

I would love to just sit with James Brown for an hour and talk about amps. Talk about a guy that has "been there done that". He has truly seen it all.

That entire interview with him is a hoot !

"Ed was drinkin' pretty heavy in those days.. he'd tell me the amp was perfect, then call me the next morning and say it sounds like cardboard."

"Well, I don't know what cardboard is, but I'll take that shit outta there!"

 

[marvcus]

That entire interview with him is a hoot !

"Ed was drinkin' pretty heavy in those days.. he'd tell me the amp was perfect, then call me the next morning and say it sounds like cardboard."

"Well, I don't know what cardboard is, but I'll take that shit outta there!"

Said this before, but I was at Peavey for a week in 1998 for a Dealer seminar. Basically they wine and dine retail sales folks for a week and give you excellent seminars on how their products work and can be sold.

James was one of the speakers and I was SUPER excited to hear him, being a massive EVH fan. We got to his day and class and about 15 minutes in, he gets interrupted saying there’s a call for him.

He gives the interruptor a look and the guy nods. He hangs down his head and walks away like someone took his football. That was it from him

Turned out it was Eddie, who was final tweaking the 5150II before the “III tour”!

I’m sure JB had fun with EVH but not during that moment in time. I can see EVH being the petulant diva then.

 

[Smash]

I am watching this video. Interesting as hell. But I know that all of us have gotten an amp. And been like, Man this sounds fucking kick ass. Then the next day, we are like, eh..
Eddie had the ability most of us don't, which is to get the designer to keep coming out and making small changes at his whim. I can't imagine how much a builder would hate that..

 

[retrorack]

There's no similarities between the SLO and a Boogie MK-anything. I don't know why that rumor circulates. Perhaps, if "inspired" means "I plugged into one and thought I'd like that much gain out of a Marshall" or something like that......????

Because Mike had owned a Mark II. He’s said that he studied it’s cascading gain design. Also that it wasn’t exactly the tone he had in his head. So he started working on bread-boarding a design that eventually turned into the first SLO. Condensing the story quite a bit, here. So that’s my best guess as to where the “inspired by” started.

 

[scottosan]

SLO’s have DeYoung transformers

"Had"

 

[scottosan]

SLO is more like a modded JCM800 with an extra gain stage and a stiffer, more linear power amp. Not that much in common with a mark II.

They were based on Mesas, which is ironic

 

[CrystalSky]

"Had"

I checked, mine still has them, they haven’t run away overnight lol

 

[scottosan]

I checked, mine still has them, they haven’t run away overnight lol

My point is that new production ones do not

 

[CrystalSky]

My point is that new production ones do not

I know. Nothing bad in a joke, is it?

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

Yeah, pretty clear to me that it was a SLO ripoff. Darker and a bit smoother

 

[Smash]

Im told it was a vtm. Jb stared at a piece of cardboard for 3 days before the cathode value just came to him

 

[ZEEGLER]

VTM is supposedly an 800 with a Jose type mod; dip switches to mold the tone.

That's pretty much as I've heard it.

The Butcher is basically a 6L6 powered 800. The VTM was a modded Butcher (800). I have heard that Eddie heard and liked the VTM, but wanted something with a bit more of everything.

 

[T Wilcox]

Rather than taking what people say as gospel I recommend looking up the Peavey VTM, SLO and 5150 schematics and comparing them
Comparing schems the VTM has very little resemblance to to any of the others
All plate resistors in the VTM are standard 100K, there is no 39K cold clipper and cathode resistors Marshall standard 2K7
The SLO,5150 and DR all have a high plate resistor on first triode as well as the 4th triode ( 470K on the SLO and 220K on the others). They all use 1K8 Cathode resistors and they all have the 39K cathode R on the third triode
I think the only thing that ties the VTM to this converstion is that Eddie said he liked it
I thought the VTM was the predecessor to the Peavey Ultra line but my lunch break is over so I dont have time to confirm

 

[Ben Waylin]

Todd is absolutely correct !

FWIW, here's another very cool interview where JB talks about the subject:

linked at timestamp where James says some key stuff:

 

[marvcus]

FWIW, James Brown says they started with a Peavey "Butcher" and went from there.

Thank you for posting this up. I listened to this while working today and learned so much straight from JB:

-Block EVH 5150 and Sig 5150 same circuit/amp (knew that), but there was a power tube change that caused tone differences and made block letter sound better, since PV ran outta Sylvania tubes around then and switched to Ruby tubes.

-VTM dip switch configuration that is same signal path of Jose modded Marshall.

-VTM modeled after Marc Ferrari’s Jose modded amp.

-EVH’s Jose built amp was the size of an SVT. It is now “missing.” Probably in a safe.

-Ampeg VC140 and 5150 have same frequency response curve and are preferred for death metal.

-Dave Friedman was buds with Matt Bruck as a young guy.

-EVH preferred a Marshall JCM800 cab with Celestion G12T75s for his SLO. Bought a cab from Andy Brauer rentals.

-EVH had someone build a handwired 5150 and it sounded like crap.

-The brown sound is a cranked Marshall and post EQ cut mids/boosted bass at the board

-EVH did not like mids per JB and Dave F

So much great stuff in there

 

[Hamer95USA]

I used to own the Peavey VTM 120 120 watt & VTM 60 60 watt amp heads and the 412MS & 212MS speaker cabs loaded with the OEM Celestion G12K-85 speakers. I didn't know anything about Marshall amp heads or cabs since I wasn't that savvy about amps at the time. During the 90's, I decided to get into building a guitar rack system and traded it away to get guitar rack gear. Who knew that the VTM amp heads would become a classic amp head that players started seeking them out.

 

[saxxamafone]

Dave Friedman somewhere in THIS video confirms that DR is a ripoff. I don’t know if that is enough though.

In the preamp section only though... power amp completely different which is why a DR sounds nothing like a SLO

 

[paulyc]

Thank you for posting this up. I listened to this while working today and learned so much straight from JB:

-Block EVH 5150 and Sig 5150 same circuit/amp (knew that), but there was a power tube change that caused tone differences and made block letter sound better, since PV ran outta Sylvania tubes around then and switched to Ruby tubes.

-VTM dip switch configuration that is same signal path of Jose modded Marshall.

-VTM modeled after Marc Ferrari’s Jose modded amp.

-EVH’s Jose built amp was the size of an SVT. It is now “missing.” Probably in a safe.

-Ampeg VC140 and 5150 have same frequency response curve and are preferred for death metal.

-Dave Friedman was buds with Matt Bruck as a young guy.

-EVH preferred a Marshall JCM800 cab with Celestion G12T75s for his SLO. Bought a cab from Andy Brauer rentals.

-EVH had someone build a handwired 5150 and it sounded like crap.

-The brown sound is a cranked Marshall and post EQ cut mids/boosted bass at the board

-EVH did not like mids per JB and Dave F

So much great stuff in there

I always read it was Brian Jay's Jose Marshall...

 

[Mr. Willy]

If you want to know what a VTM sounds like, listen to the first Candlebox album. VTM all over it.

One primary reason Ed went with Peavey amps is because Soldano didn’t do endorsements. Ed was furthering his EVH brand by partnering with Peavey to make amps and so he could make $$$. And I ain’t saying that last part like it’s a crime for a man to make money.

The Dual Rectifier’s preamp is so close to the SLO’s design that Mike Soldano strongly considered suing Mesa over it. But he ain’t a litigious kind of fella, so he didn’t do it.

 

[CrystalSky]

In the preamp section only though... power amp completely different which is why a DR sounds nothing like a SLO

Preamp arguably contributes more to the sound of highgainer, and we havent heard the first prototypes to know how close they sounded.

I for one is absolute cool with any kind of replications, if they yield nice result and increase availability.